Parliament has made significant strides in digitizing and providing remote access to its vast collection of parliamentary archives, with nearly 30 million documents cataloged, and 12 million of them already digitized.
This achievement comes as part of the ongoing “Paperless Parliament Project,” which has earned Parliament a first-place award at the Turkish Informatics Awards. Under the leadership of Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, the initiative has now advanced with the launch of the “Digital Parliament Project,” further accelerating the transition to digital.
The newly developed Archive Management System software enables easy access to all archived documents through a single portal, making them available to users across the campus. This system was created in-house, initially tested in 2022, and fully operationalized last year, with data transfer beginning in 2023. It allows users to quickly search and access parliamentary records through various filters such as names, dates, document numbers and keywords.
One of the key features of this new system is the ability to conduct simultaneous research across the entire archive collection, including documents like those from the Independence Tribunals, Yassıada, the Supreme Court of Justice, the National Assembly and various historical committees, such as the National Unity Committee and the National Security Council. The system also includes records from the Turkish republic’s early years, legislative proceedings and official publications, and an impressive array of newspapers, journals, and books.
By the end of the year, the total number of digital images in the system is expected to reach 13 million, with the ability to search these images in full text. This will further enhance accessibility, enabling users to conduct thorough research on a wide range of historical documents and texts.
In addition to archival documents, Parliament’s Library has digitized national newspapers, with images from 5 million pages already loaded into the system. This includes publications from prominent Turkish newspapers. The digitization of these materials ensures that Parliament’s archives remain invaluable for researchers, historians, and the public.
The project also includes digitization of non-copyrighted books, magazines and political party publications, with over 290 magazines now available through the open-access system. The system’s user base has grown to 2.73 million, reflecting the increasing demand for access to these important historical records.